When the SS Empire Windrush berthed at Tilbury docks in 1948 with 492
ex-servicemen from the Caribbean, it marked the beginning of the
post-war migrations to Britain that would form part of modern,
multi-cultural Britain. A significant role in this social transformation
would be played by the literary and non-literary output of writers from
the Caribbean. These writers in exile were responsible not just for the
establishment of the West Indian novel, but, by virtue of their location
in the Mother Country, were also the pioneers of black writing in
Britain. Over the next fifty years, this writing would come to represent
an important body of work intimately aligned to the evolving and
contentious notions of 'home' as economic migration became a permanent
presence. In this book, David Ellis provides in-depth analyses of six
key figures whose writing charts the establishment of black Britain. For
Sam Selvon, George Lamming, and E. R. Braithwaite, writing home
represents a literature of reappraisal as the myths of empire--the
gold-paved streets of London--conflict with the harsh realities of being
designated an immigrant. The unresolved consequences of this reappraisal
are made evident in the works of Andrew Salkey, Wilson Harris, and
Linton Kwesi Johnson where radicalism in both political and literary
terms can be read as a response to the rejection of the black
communities by an increasingly divided Britain in the 1970s. Finally,
the novels of Caryl Phillips, Joan Riley, and David Dabydeen mark an
increasingly reflective literature as the notion of home shifts more
explicitly from the Caribbean to Britain itself. Containing both
contextual and biographical information throughout, "Writing Home"
represents a literary and social history of the emergence of black
Britain in the second half of the twentieth century.
